Girl sues her college because ... she can't find a job

[Monoriu]

She may get a settlement, if the school is afraid of the trial basically putting the legitimacy of the school on trial. If so, you'll be out of luck Wags--I'm sure the settlement will have a nondisclosure portion.

But if the school settles, won't every other student sue?

[Caliga]

Now that I think about it, there is precedence for this sort of case in the for-profit world.  I read about a case a few years ago where a bunch of students filed a class action against a for-profit surgical assistant program because none of them managed to get a job in the field.  I'm not sure if they won but I think the school went out of business, so maybe bad publicity ruined what little reputation it had in the first place.

Although this girl is a complete moron (if she lived in the Bronx and was actually smart, she could have commuted to Fordham), do keep in mind that most of these schools truly are scams.

[Darth Wagtaros]

She may get a settlement, if the school is afraid of the trial basically putting the legitimacy of the school on trial. If so, you'll be out of luck Wags--I'm sure the settlement will have a nondisclosure portion.

But if the school settles, won't every other student sue?

They may fight it just to discourage that.  But its sometimes cheaper to toss some money their way.  On an unrelated note the insurance companies in Mass pay out to every fraud n the Commonwealth because its cheaper than doing investigation and prosecution. 

[alfred russel]

She may get a settlement, if the school is afraid of the trial basically putting the legitimacy of the school on trial. If so, you'll be out of luck Wags--I'm sure the settlement will have a nondisclosure portion.

But if the school settles, won't every other student sue?

Probably not--put out a statement that the suit was groundless and this is a vindication of your position and you haven't admitted wrongdoing. You can't answer questions on any payout because you are bound by the settlement agreement, but are pleased with the terms. The woman gets $20k and doesn't speak to the media other than say no comment.

But ideally you would settle before this ever got into the papers in the first place.

[Josquius]

You do realize accreditation doesn't mean as much as it used to, right?  All the for-profit schools are "accredited" too.

Again, the for-profit schools are generally accredited at the school level and not at the program level.  There is at least one thing you simply can't do with a non-accredited CS degree without jumping through a lot more hoops.

I concede the general point, though; when I was programming, there were any number of non-CS and even un-degreed colleagues around, and they certainly weren't any worse than the others.  The best programmer I ever worked with had an MD, of all things.

Expected.
Universities I've encountered tend to suck at teaching programming, thats left utterly up to yourself.

[DGuller]

They may fight it just to discourage that.  But its sometimes cheaper to toss some money their way.  On an unrelated note the insurance companies in Mass pay out to every fraud n the Commonwealth because its cheaper than doing investigation and prosecution.

Interestingly enough, just a month ago I attended a presentation by guy who used to work at the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau.  According to him, the bureau was created due to rampant fraud leading to escalating insurance costs, and it was effective at curtailing it.  The runaway growth in insurance costs stopped once the bureau was put in action.  He had the cool graphs to show the effect, so it must've been true.  What you say may have been true 15 years ago, but I don't think it's true now.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Few times a year people die in some lame attempt at insurance fraud.  I hope they've made the kind of major cleanup you say they say they have, but I'm still a bit skeptical.

[crazy canuck]

Legal actions against Universities is a growing trend in Canada.  The usual claim is either that the student didnt do well because the University failed to educate them properly or because the University failed to properly accomodate a disability (usually one that the student "discovers" after the fact).

It used to be that these kinds of claims would be summarily thrown out but Courts and Human Rights Tribinunals are beginning to allow these cases to be heard.

[Vince]

I've noticed that those that went to "good" schools generally demanded more than those coming out of community colleges.

I do take great pleasure in pointing out to my friends that my students loans are a small fraction of theirs because unlike them who went to "good" schools I went to state college.   

[Caliga]

 

State schools can be quite good.

[garbon]

I've noticed that those that went to "good" schools generally demanded more than those coming out of community colleges.

Umm...duh? Why would that be any kind of shock?

[Vince]

State schools can be quite good.

And the one I went to was very good but ten years ago many of my friends were bragging because they were attending big name schools in the area (Syracuse, Cornell, etc) and assumed it would give them a big head start over me when they graduated.    Funny how that worked out.   

[Caliga]

When you're a kid, you have no sense of perspective usually, so it's easy to drastically overvalue stuff like a school's "rep".

OTOH, in certain fields (law, business) it is pretty important to go to an elite school, primarily for the good networking opportunities.

[Malthus]

When you're a kid, you have no sense of perspective usually, so it's easy to drastically overvalue stuff like a school's "rep".

OTOH, in certain fields (law, business) it is pretty important to go to an elite school, primarily for the good networking opportunities.

Not just networking.

In law, what school you went to (and how well you did there) is very important in getting your all-important first position ("articling" here in Canada). Thereafter, no-one cares in the least - it is all about experience.

[Caliga]

Not just networking.

In law, what school you went to (and how well you did there) is very important in getting your all-important first position ("articling" here in Canada). Thereafter, no-one cares in the least - it is all about experience.

I kinda see that as a function of networking.  Probably the senior partners went to elite schools, so they favor others who did as well.  They want their firm stocked with elite grads so they can position it as an elite firm.